UML policies

The communist parties in Nepal have a glorious history of splitting for interesting reasons. They are so sensitive that they form a splinter group on the differences of opinion about Russia, China or Peru's domestic policies. So when the UML central committee is reviewing its past policies and future strategies for 14 days, the anxiety about their integrity is not invalid, especially when the issues are as sensitive as perception about the Maoists and unity among the eight political parties during the CA elections. Powerful general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal's opinion that the Maoists should be treated as extreme leftists has been vehemently opposed by other two senior leaders Jhalanath Khanal and Bamdev Gautam. The duo is of the view that in the context when the Maoists have joined the mainstream politics they do not remain extreme left. The Post seconds Nepal's idea. Until and unless the Maoists start behaving responsibly, they should be considered as extreme left, and behaved accordingly. If we go by Khanal's and Gautam's version, we will end up losing democracy.

Maybe Khanal is right in criticizing the leadership for its incompetence in the past. However, he is contradicting himself. At one point, he is demanding that the Maoists be considered more flexible and not as extreme left. On the other, he is alleging the leadership for being too flexible to negotiate for power. Gautam has gone too extreme. So, his protest holds no water. No wonder many UML cadres consider Gautam closer to the Maoists than UML. However, Nepal is also not completely right when he says that UML should coordinate closely with all the eight parties for the CA elections. In fact, his strategy should be limited to the democratic parties only. After all, UML's main rival is the CPN (Maoist), going along would be suicidal for UML in particular and democratic polity in general.

The problem with UML has been its inability to assess its own power and influence. As such, its leaders have always been grumbling about being marginalized from the government, parliament and all. This party also seems confused about who their real cadres are: extreme leftists or liberal socialists? The fact is that this party won't lose its vote bank of around 30 percent if it continues to be left to center party. This party has the potential to protect democracy and can counter Maoist extremisms. The only problem is that it has failed to groom a new leader. If Nepal wants to be remembered as a successful general secretary of the party, he has to groom new leaders from the pool of promising young cadres. The future for UML lies in becoming a socialist party and not in going back to extreme left.

Source: The Kathmandu Post, July 8, 2007